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Adebayor deserves his chance at Spurs, but will he get it?

Emmanuel Adebayor has barely even made the bench this season finding himself behind Jermain Defoe and Roberto Soldado.

Emmanuel Adebayor was handed a rare starting opportunity in Tottenham Hotspur's 2-1 defeat to West Ham United in the Capital One Cup quarter-final on Wednesday night. He grabbed the chance with both hands, scoring a right-footed volley and putting in a spirited performance that impressed a lot of fans.

When he was subbed off for Lewis Holtby he received an encouraging reception from the Spurs faithful which suggests they were happy with his display and would like to see the management give him more opportunities. Adebayor has waited patiently for his chances this season. It has been surprising how little game time he has had, but he has made the most of the limited chances. He has scored three goals from his four starts this season.

£30 million man Roberto Soldado has failed to live up to his transfer fee this season, far from it in fact. Jermain Defoe has shown he is lethal in the Europa League but that has failed to transfer to the Premier League. In fairness he hasn't been given much of a chance in that competition either until recently. Rumours are that he is heading off to Toronto FC in the new year anyway.

It is well reported that Adebayor is on a huge wage and it was Spurs' intention to sell him on in the summer. No loan or permanent deals materialised and the former Arsenal striker stayed with the club. So if you have a striker at your club for at least the next few months, with a great goalscoring record then it would be silly not to use him. Andre Villas-Boas resisted giving him a chance though, even though Tottenham have been struggling to find the back of the net this season.

Tim Sherwood gave Adebayor a chance in his first game in charge, which suggests that other backroom members had always wanted him to feature more and AVB was the man putting his foot down. We have all seen how well the man from Togo can perform, he was excellent at Arsenal and Manchester City before things turned sour at the latter. He has also represented Real Madrid under Mourinho and it seems ludicrous why he has not been given a chance in a low-scoring side.

Adebayor's record in the Premier League speaks for itself; he has scored 83 goals in 196 games, this is despite mainly appearing from the bench last season for Spurs. In his first season at the club he scored 18 goals and assisted 12 more. He was a huge asset for them that year. He is still only 29, which is around the age a striker peaks. He should certainly be given more of a chance at White Hart Lane, and I'm sure he could strike up a decent partnership with Soldado or Defoe.

This season we haven't seen Adebayor complaining about his situation, of course some would say why would he on those wages? But from the outside it seems that he still wants to play for the club and can still have a big impact.

Josh McLoughlin

Josh is a 21-year-old aspiring Football journalist based in Preston/Manchester and a huge Preston North End fan. His own blog aloadofballs1.wordpress.com takes a look at many Football issues from across the world and has attracted views from all over the world, from Nepal to Peru.